FIFA bans Qatar’s Al Mohannadi from football-related activities for one year

FIFA’s ethics watchdog banned Qatari top official Saoud Al Mohannadi for a year for failing to cooperate as a witness with an investigation, Reuters reported.

The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and Qatar Football Association (QFA) vice-president had earlier been stopped from competing for a place on FIFA Council while his conduct over the matter was investigated. Al Mohannadi has denied any wrongdoing.

Al Mohannadi’s disqualification in September led delegates to call off an extraordinary AFC Congress, which had been called to choose three Asian places on the FIFA Council. The agenda was voted down after just 27 minutes of the Congress in Goa.

Those places remain unfilled and the elections will now take place at the end of February, one month after the FIFA Council is expected to make key decisions on the size and format of the World Cup.

In a statement, the ethics committee said that Al Mohannadi ‘did not cooperate with the investigatory chamber in the proceedings against a third party’ and had infringed two articles of the FIFA code of ethics.

In addition to the one-year ban, FIFA's ethics judge Hans-Joachim Eckert also fined Al Mohannadi $19,928.